November 2005 TOTM - LesD (1 Viewer)

[Niko5]

Leslie (LesD) has won the November TOTM. View it HERE and chat about his tank or ask questions in this thread. Congratulations Leslie.

This TOTM was sponsored by City Pets, Leslie will receive a $25 dollar gift certificate. Thanks City Pets!!!

View TOTM HERE

Teaser

 

[Cakepro]

Wow, gorgeous!! I have serious reef-envy!

 

[AggieBrandon]

Beautiful tank. Congrats Les

 

[Guest]

WOO HOO!!!! Awesome tank!

 

[landfish]

Congrats Les

Your tank is unreal. The pics look great and do not do your tank justice. Truly one of the nicest tanks I have seen. You got to love those cool wrasse and the HUGE clam

 

[Guest]

Great tank Les, and the honesty is refreshing. some peoples maintenance schedules humble me to the point of considering quiting the hobby. This is not to say that I would, just that I already spend many many hours on my tank and still do not clean out the skimmer daily or soak my power heads monthly as some do. Your tank is inspiring and truely a work of art.

Where did you get those digital timers, I have been looking for some like that.

Jen

 

[lesd]

Jen, thanks for the comments on my maintenance schedule. I almost wrote a couple of paragraphs on my whole reefing philosophy, but decided I didn't want the write up to be too long. I have always thought that most of the TOTM articles you see are completely unatttainable and unrealistic for the majority of us. My tank does great, and I occasionally neglect it for weeks at a time (I still feed the fish, I promise!).

Not to say I haven't had problems along the way (Bryopsis, floods, heaters sticking on, Aiptasia, etc.). And I did spend the better part of an hour scraping all the corallline off the front and sides of the tank before I took those pictures.

I believe those timers came from Lowe's. Look for them in the lighting department - they run about $15-$20.

-- Les

 

[Ophiura]

Most certainly deserved!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[fishcraze]

Congrats, Les. Very nice pics -but the tank looks even nicer in person!

 

[Guest]

Les, if you typed it up, we can always post it in our articles section for those who want to read it.

 

[lesd]

Thanks for the compliments everyone! It's true that the pictures don't do it justice - I think my old Nikon Coolpix 2500 is doing the best it can.

Kim, thanks for the offer on the articles section - if I can figure out a way to clearly organize some of my more useful scattered thoughts into an article, I'll send it your way.

-- Les

 

[Guest]

Thanks man!!!

 

[Guest]

Dudeeeee...Sweetttttt

 

[djreef]

Congrats Les,

Very much deserved on an outstanding rig. It is wonderful to have so many Master Reefers in our city to pull resources from.

DJ

 

[Guest]

Leslie your tank is beautiful, thanks for entering the TOTM. Looking at tanks like yours gives us new folks courage to try making this happen in our homes. I agree with Jen, if you can find time to expound on your reefing philosophy, many of us would like to hear your ideas. It might also be helpful if you could include anything you might have changed about your setup, if there is a little something. I'm a week or two away from placing an order for a 150 gal. tank and can use all the ideas I can get in this last planning stage.
Congrats on such a lovely tank, even if you take a more simple approach, we all know that a tank like this takes work and forthought!

 

[Wildfire]

Congrats! Beautiful tank... I particulary like the aquascaping....

 

[lesd]

Thanks guys. There aren't many major things I would have changed with this tank, but here are a few small ones:

1. T5s instead of VHOs for actinic supplementation.

2. I have 1/4" RO tubing making a long run from a "T" on my return pump, through a laundry room, into the garage, feeding my CaRxr. I currently have a hard time keeping a constant flow rate because the tubing is always getting clogged up.

3. The center overflow is nice, but the perimeter bracing leaves very little room to get my arm in there. Doing any work on the Durso standpipe in there is a royal pain.

4. Quieter pumps - there is always a tough tradeoff between heat, noise, and flow when it comes to pumps. The GRI520 on my closed loop is super loud, and the MAK4 on my skimmer is not quiet either.

Can't think of anything else right now, but I do tinker with things every so often to try to make my life easier, so the support equipment does change slightly from year to year.

-- Les

 

[Guest]

Help!!!! Urgent!

Hello,

Does anyone have a table for the kh/alk test? My brother (userid: fishcraze) is on vacation for a whole month and he asked me to take care of fish tank. I've managed to lose the kh/alk table and now have no idea how to read his ph. Again, please please if you have the table from Salifert for kh/alk test, please upload or send it to me to kctopgun@yahoo.com.

Thanks very much!!